Almost unbeknownst to them says Thomas Heatherwick

The name of Thomas Heatherwick is synonymous with spectacular. This young English designer of 36 years, which established his studio in London in 1994, is one of the most brilliant of his generation. Because it dares in all that it undertakes, regardless of the technical difficulty. Evidenced by these "inventions" that balance between architecture, sculpture and engineering, as in London where he built a pedestrian bridge which is coiled on itself. The Prodigy is also the author of B of the Bang, sculpture of fifty-six metres high, equivalent to a twenty-storey building. An Urchin 180 tonnes, spiky Pikes of steel, installed at the entrance of the Manchester Stadium to celebrate the games of the Commonwealth in 2003. Thomas Heatherwick currently built a Buddhist temple in the Japan. The inspiration for its curvilinear edges came by looking at the folds of the cushions on which the Buddha statues are installed.

Heatherwick is as unclassifiable as the character, sort of the extreme adventurer. He said to be led by"curiosity" of the design studies at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Royal College of art. Before that Longchamp makes appeal to him, it was never built at United States, or developed commercial space. The leather offered this double opportunity by entrusting the construction of its new Soho flagship, the trendy Manhattan store. The result is a performance. Could not expect anything on the part of the roof British and awesome. "He has had total freedom of inspiration," says Sophie Delafontaine, Director of the style of the brand and granddaughter of the founder Jean Cassegrain. Thomas Heatherwick was not unknown in the House, since it had already collaborated on a project variable volumetric bag, model Zip. "It's a very inventive personality, who will end his ideas." "It was immediately thought to him for this project," she added.

Beautiful building angle

Heatherwick inherited a beautiful brick corner building, classified "historical" by the State of New York. "Constraints in terms of use of materials and respect of the original structures were very important," he notes. The fact that it is the only building on two floors of Soho gives it a unique interest. "It took a year of gestation and so much work to redesign the site and create a space of more than 400 square metres of presentation of the products on the first floor, the second with a showroom and a wooded terrace (see diagram below).

The singularity of this store lies in the absence of ground floor. "The square metres of exhibition available on the ground floor are very limited." The challenge was to bring customers to the floor, he had to find a way to make them cross space, without hardship. "Almost unbeknownst to them", says Thomas Heatherwick. Mission accomplished because, at the entrance of the shop, the ground gives the impression of lift. This is not a staircase leading to the floor but folding of land. A landscape in motion made of gateways, levels and steps of course leading to the first. The treadmill or the Ribbon image comes to mind in the natural rubber bands that emphasize the degrees of this monumental staircase landscaping. On the first floor, the products are installed on clear wood shelves attached to the ceiling that leave visible brick walls origin, as a glance at the Soho loft spirit.

Everything here surprises, beginning with the transparent staircase balustrades draped and the taffeta. "We were able achieve different panels in England, in a special machine made on measure, like a giant toaster, so that each takes its own curve." Heatherwick does not say it's a technology usually reserved for the manufacture of the windshield of aircraft... When asked what it is more satisfied in this achievement, the architect mentioned a surprising detail: the "system magnetic displays that live in this somewhat dramatic universe, of the kinds of gremlins, live and play", which are suspended bags.

It easily devine, the device imagined to Soho is not transposed elsewhere. Hence the name of the shop: Maison Unique Longchamp. The evidence that the claw grew so far an image a bit wise, is not necessarily where expected it. Quality shared Thomas Heatherwick.

Longchamp, 132, Spring Street, New York.